There are personal training and fitness bootcamp members at the Genesis Performance Center who are going into the fasting month soon this year. And recently they have been wondering what would be the best way to maintain their fat loss, weight loss and muscle building results that they have gotten.
In fact when I was working at the Singapore Sports School, we did research on how to help Muslim atheltes perform well even during fasting month/ramadan.
So here are my recommendations…
Either train early in the morning (immediately after the morning break fast) or at night (after the evening break fast)
If you train in the morning, do it at about 730am or 8am if you do it in the evening, do it at about 8pm. This is so that you don’t train on a super full stomach.
Even though we may not get the ideal 6 feeding opportunities per day, we should get at least 3 good ones. Morning break fast, evening break fast, and one more big meal before bed. These meals should be slow digesting ones so that you stay full longer. That means no starchy bad stuff. More protein and healthy fats which digest slowly.
So a sample daily timetable for morning training would be:
- 6am breakfast – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake
- 730am training
- 715pm breakfast (evening) – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a caesin protein shake
- 10pm supper – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, casein protein shake
For evening training:
- 6am breakfast – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a casein protein shake
- 715pm breakfast (evening) – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, a whey protein shake
- 8pm training – another whey protein shake post workout
- 10pm supper – eggs, meat, nuts, cheese, casein protein shake
There we go! It’s not ideal, but it’s good enough that you shouldn’t lose too much progress during fasting month.
NOTE: Drink water in large amounts as often as you can during the times when you are allowed to. You should be needing constant toilet breaks and your urine should be colorless – that is the correct amount!
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hi there,
thanks for the article. just curios.. if i train in the morning, my body won’t have a post-workout meal to replenish what is used etc. so won’t my body start using muscle for energy?
Thats what the big breakfast is for. You are making the best out of a non-ideal situation
This article has really helped me a lot but i have a bit of a problem. My Parents are EXTREMELY skeptical about protein shakes so i try to build muscle without using supplements. Would i still be able to keep muscle during ramadan without them? Also, i am trying to lose a bit of fat while sustaining muscle. Any Ideas?
thanks in advance
You won’t die without protein powder but don’t expect as much progress during this month. If you can maintain all your gains, consider it a success.
Replace all shakes with more meat if necessary.
Would something like the Warrior diet or IF be suitable for such situations?